Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to blow molding methods and apparatus and to blow molded devices, such as sealed containers, and more particularly, to apparatus and methods for blow molding sealed, empty devices such as by co-extrusion blow molding.
Background Information
One of the drawbacks of current devices for storing products, such as food or medicinal products, is that multiple parts of the devices must be manufactured separately, such as by molding, and then assembled together. This can be particularly time consuming and expensive when the devices are used for storing sterile food products, medicinal products, or other products requiring sterile filling and/or that must be sealed with respect to ambient atmosphere during storage and/or use of the devices. For example, with devices including removable closures, the closures and bodies must be created separately, and then sterilized, sterile filled, and assembled in a sterile isolator. These multiple assembly steps can be time consuming, the maintenance and use of a sterile isolator for assembling and filling can be complicated and expensive, and overall the assembly, sterilizing and filling processes can subject the devices and/or sterile filled products to an undesirable risk of contamination.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to overcome one or more of the above-described drawbacks and/or disadvantages of the prior art.